What if you could read my mind? What if I could beam what I’m seeing, hearing, and thinking, straight to you, and vice versa? What if an implant could store your memories, augment them, and make you smarter?

Long the stuff of science fiction, technology that can directly tap into, augment, and connect human brains is becoming science fact. And that means big changes for all of us.

Consider what we’ve already done – getting data in and out of the human brain:

Hearing – At least 200,000 people alive today use a cochlear implant. A cochlear implant looks like a hearing aid, but it works quite differently. It takes sound waves in the environment and transforms them into nerve impulses to the auditory nerve. In creating it, we’ve tapped into and partially decoded the way the nervous system represents sound.

Sight – In 2002, researchers restored vision to a blind man by wiring the output from a digital camera directly into the primary visual cortex in his brain. A Matrix-style jack from the camera went straight into his brain, enabling him to see, though both his eyes had long since been destroyed. Now a related technology is on the verge of FDA approval for widespread use in blind patients.

Video Out – Researchers have also shown that by using an fMRI brain scanner, they can reconstruct what a person is seeing, demonstrating that we can get visual data both into and out of the human brain.

"The power of the spoken word hasn’t disappeared and it never will. But with the enormous forces applied by hardware, software, advertising and media corporations – to consume, consume and consume some more – kids brains are being rewired. What to? pretty simple – to consume media. Lately becoming a synonym to advertising."

Table of Contents: i. Introduction/Synopsis PART I: AN INTRODUCTION TO HOLMESIAN THINKING 1. The Two Modes of Thinking: The Watsonian Mode and the Holmesian Mode 2. The Holmesian Method as the Scie...

Alistair Parker's insight:

from the intro...Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes is as popular today as when he was created back in the late 19th century. This comes as no surprise, of course, since there is just something about Holmes’ peculiar qualities—his keen observation, clever imagination, and incisive reasoning capabilities—that is both awe-inspiring and inspirational. We admire Holmes for cutting through the errors of thought that are so common to us in our daily lives (and that are reflected in Holmes’ sidekick, Watson). And yet we recognize that there is nothing in Holmes’ thought that is entirely out of reach for us. Indeed, his qualities are not so much superhuman as human plus: human qualities taken to their extreme. Still, human qualities taken to their extreme are intimidating enough, and we may find ourselves doubting whether we could ever really think like Sherlock—even if we put our minds to it. But for cognitive psychologist Maria Konnikova, we should think again.

A report on Neuroscience: Implications for education and lifelong learning was released today 24 February by theRoyal Society. Professor Diana Laurillard was on the working group for this report, and several members of the London Knowledge Lab are in the joint IOE - BBK - UCL Centre for Educational Neuroscience.

The augmented reality scene is hotting up, with the promise of full computer-mediated vision for the mainstream and another hint that Google won't have the

Alistair Parker's insight:

from the site...The augmented reality scene is hotting up, with the promise of full computer-mediated vision for the mainstream and another hint that Google won’t have the Glass market all to itself thanks to an incoming headset from startup Meta. The wearable project actually goes one step further than Project Glass, putting a full twin-display digital environment – controlled by two hand 3D tracking – in front of the user, rather than floating notifications and prompts in the corner of their eye as Google’s system does.

Keeping active can slow down the progression of memory loss in people with Alzheimer's disease, a study has shown.

The Nottingham team, led by Dr Marie-Christine Pardon in the School of Biomedical Sciences, has discovered that the stress hormone CRF — or corticotrophin-releasing factor — may have a protective effect on the brain from the memory changes brought on by Alzheimer’s disease.

CRF is most associated with producing stress and is found in high levels in people experiencing some forms of anxiety and depressive diseases. Normal levels of CRF, however, are beneficial to the brain, keeping the mental faculties sharp and aiding the survival of nerve cells. Unsurprisingly then, studies have shown that people with Alzheimer’s disease have a reduced level of CRF.

Andrea Hernandez is a student at John Jay School, a magnet school in Texas whose students were recently required to begin wearing Smart ID badges with radio-frequency identification (RFID) locator chips in them.

Alistair Parker's insight:

from the article... RFID chips have been used to track a multitude of items. Library books, department store products, and just about anything that is part of a major supply chain are tracked to streamline the chain and save money. In vitro fertilization clinics have used them to avoid extremely awkward moments were they to mix up which sperm goes with which egg. Animals are routinely tagged too. But the touchy part comes when you want to start tagging people. Actually, some have been tagged for a while. Hospitals will often place RFID chips on patients lest they wander off or a hurried doctor misplaces them.

An Ohio woman is the first Alzheimer's patient in the United States to have a pacemaker implanted in her brain.

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During a five-hour surgery last October at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Kathy Sanford became the first Alzheimer's patient in the United States to have a pacemaker implanted in her brain.

She is the first of up to 10 patients who will be enrolled in an FDA-approved study at Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center to determine if using a brain pacemaker can improve cognitive and behavioral functioning in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

The study employs the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS), the same technology used to successfully treat about 100,000 patients worldwide with movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. In the study, researchers hope to determine whether DBS surgery can improve function governed by the frontal lobe and neural networks involved in cognition and behavior by stimulating certain areas of the brain with a pacemaker.

Dr. Douglas Scharre, neurologist and director of the division of cognitive neurology, and Dr. Ali Rezai, neurosurgeon and director of the neuroscience program, both at Wexner Medical Center, are conducting the study.

"If the early findings that we're seeing continue to be robust and progressive, then I think that will be very promising and encouraging for us," says Rezai, who also directs the Center for Neuromodulation at Ohio State. "But so far we are cautiously optimistic."

The deep brain stimulation implant is similar to a cardiac pacemaker device with the exception that the pacemaker wires are implanted in the brain rather than the heart.

"Basically, the pacemakers send tiny signals into the brain that regulate the abnormal activity of the brain and normalize it more," says Rezai. "Right now, from what we're seeing in our first patient, I think the results are encouraging, but this is research. We need to do more research and understand what's going on."

The study, which will enroll people with mild or early-stage Alzheimer's disease, will help determine if DBS has the potential to improve cognitive, behavioral and functional deficits.

Sanford continues to be evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the technology, says Rezai. She says she volunteered for the study to help others avoid the angst she has suffered as Alzheimer's slowly disrupted her life.

"I'm just trying to make the world a better place," says Sanford. "That's all I'm doing."

Lifelogging is the process of tracking personal data generated by our own behavioral activities. While Lifestreaming primarily tracks the activity of content

Alistair Parker's insight:

from site - I created this page to track some of the devices, apps, and web services that are being created to allow us to Lifelog. You can also view an archive of all my posts on Lifelogging here. For a comprehensive list of Lifelogging apps, devices and services visit the official Quantified Self guide to self tracking.

A report that highlights advances in neuroscience with potential implications for education and lifelong learning.

Alistair Parker's insight:

A copy of the report is available here...

This report highlights advances in neuroscience with potential implications for education and lifelong learning. The report authors, including neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists and education specialists, agree that if applied properly, the impacts of neuroscience could be highly beneficial in schools and beyond. The report argues that our growing understanding of how we learn should play a much greater role in education policy and should also feature in teacher training. The report also discusses the challenges and limitations of applying neuroscience in the classroom and in learning environments throughout life.

The cello/brainwave duet explored the relationship a performer has to the music she's playing.

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Cellist Katinka Kleijn performed both halves of a duet Sunday night. Her hands played the cello, and her brain, hooked up to a headset that detects cerebral electrical signals, played itself. Kleijn has been playing the cello for 35 years. Her brain was a little less experienced.

“Intelligence in the Human Machine,” the cello/brain duet, explored the relationship a performer has to the music she’s playing. During the performance, at Chicago’s Cultural Center, Kleijn wore an Emotiv EPOC, a neuroheadset with 14 sensors that attach to the scalp and detect brainwaves. In front of her, a laptop flashed a word and a few measures of music. She then played the music on her cello, interpreting the word onscreen. At the same time, her brainwaves, translated to audio, changed sounds as she reacted to the word.

What if you could read my mind? What if I could beam what I’m seeing, hearing, and thinking, straight to you, and vice versa? What if an implant could store your memories, augment them, and make you smarter?

Long the stuff of science fiction, technology that can directly tap into, augment, and connect human brains is becoming science fact. And that means big changes for all of us.

Consider what we’ve already done – getting data in and out of the human brain:

Hearing – At least 200,000 people alive today use a cochlear implant. A cochlear implant looks like a hearing aid, but it works quite differently. It takes sound waves in the environment and transforms them into nerve impulses to the auditory nerve. In creating it, we’ve tapped into and partially decoded the way the nervous system represents sound.

Sight – In 2002, researchers restored vision to a blind man by wiring the output from a digital camera directly into the primary visual cortex in his brain. A Matrix-style jack from the camera went straight into his brain, enabling him to see, though both his eyes had long since been destroyed. Now a related technology is on the verge of FDA approval for widespread use in blind patients.

Video Out – Researchers have also shown that by using an fMRI brain scanner, they can reconstruct what a person is seeing, demonstrating that we can get visual data both into and out of the human brain.

Causing a bit of a stir over in Germany is a patent filed by a Saudi Arabian gentlemen fora form of subcutaneous RFID chip which would allow remote global tracking of the person into whom it was injected.

Alistair Parker's insight:

from article...

The patent application – entitled “Implantation of electronic chips in the human body for the purposes of determining its geographical location” – was filed on October 30, 2007, but was only published until last week, or 18 months after submission as required by German law, she said.

“In recent times the number of people sought by security forces has increased,” the Jeddah-based inventor wrote in his summary.

The tiny electronic device [...] would be suited for tracking fugitives from justice, terrorists, illegal immigrants, criminals, political opponents, defectors, domestic help, and Saudi Arabians who don’t return home from pilgrimages.

If you want to recall moments in your life, you’ve got thousands of photos and emails to help you. Forgot the details of a news story from last month? Google’s got your back.

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The high tech dream of lifelogging”—capturing everything important to you—is increasingly becoming real.

But there’s one big area where our digital recall falls short: prospective memory.

Today’s tech helps mostly with retrospective or semantic memory, events or facts we’ve encountered in the past. Prospective memory is different. It’s our ability to remember to remember something—like stopping to grab the dry cleaning on the way home.

As it turns out, this is where our pain really lies.

Sure, it’s embarrassing when our retrospective memory fails, like when you space out on a colleague’s name. But failures of prospective memory can wreck your career or life: Forget to attend a crucial meeting or file a tax document on time and things go downhill from there. Microsoft researcher Abigail Sellen has studied everyday memory lapses, and she found that people didn’t complain much about forgetting the past. What really killed them was forgetting the future. Prospective memory is about getting things done.

Unfortunately, buffing your brain with memory-training tricks won’t necessarily help. Some studies have found that people who are better at remembering facts are actually worse at remembering tasks. Call it the absentminded-professor effect.

Why does prospective memory fail? Partly because it’s tricky to cue. Prospective recall is about doing task A when we’re in place B or at time C. But place B or time C on its own doesn’t always clearly indicate that you have to do something.

The thing with prospective memory,” Sellen says, “is giving you the right trigger at the right time and place.”

All 154 Shakespeare sonnets have been spelled out in DNA to demonstrate the vast potential of genetic data storage

Alistair Parker's insight:

from article...They knew that DNA was an incredibly efficient and compact way to store information, and set about devising a way to turn the molecules into digital memory: capable of encoding the 1s and 0s used to store words, images, music and video on computers.

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